Stalking: Ignoring it won't make it go away

January is National Stalking Awareness Month. It’s a time to focus on a crime that affects between 6.6 and 7.5 million victims a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

This year’s theme, “Stalking: Know It. Name It. Stop It,” challenges communities everywhere to fight this dangerous crime by learning more about it.

“Often a victim of stalking spends time and energy feeling guilt that they somehow led the perpetrator on,” said Erin Roberts, executive director of Relief After Violent Encounter – Ionia and Montcalm, Inc. (RAVE). “In the beginning, it is difficult to decipher the difference between a misguided interest and stalking. Then things change and become uncomfortable, scary, dangerous and unstable, creating a fearful reaction and heightened level of vigilance.”

Stalking is a crime in all 50 states, the U.S. Territories and the District of Columbia, yet many victims and criminal justice professionals underestimate its seriousness and impact. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, in 1 of 5 cases, stalkers use weapons to harm or threaten victims; and a 2003 study by the American Journal of Public Health found that stalking is one of the significant risk factors for homicide of women in abusive relationships.

“No one deserves to live in fear, or allow someone else to control how they live their lives,” said Detective Phillip Hesche with the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office. “Victims are often terrified of the person criminally stalking them, and they’re cases that law enforcement takes very seriously.”

Stalking is difficult to recognize, investigate and prosecute. Unlike other crimes, stalking is not a single, easily identifiable crime but a series of acts, a course of conduct directed at a specific person that would cause that person fear.

Stalking may take many forms, such as assaults, threats, vandalism, burglary or animal abuse, as well as unwanted cards, calls, gifts or visits. One in 4 victims reports that the stalker uses technology such as computers, global positioning system devices or hidden cameras to track the victim’s daily activities, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

“Sometimes it’s direct stalking in person, but in this day and age of social media and electronic instantaneous communication it often comes through the medium of the Internet,” Hesche said. “Whether it’s direct stalking in person, or stalking a person via cell phone text messaging or email, it’s still criminal and will be handled as such.”

Here are some examples from www.loveisrespect.org of what a stalker may do:

- Show up at your home or place of work unannounced or uninvited.

- Send you unwanted text messages, letters, emails and voicemails.

- Leave unwanted items, gifts or flowers.

- Constantly call you and hang up.

- Use social networking sites and technology to track you.

- Spread rumors about you via the Internet or word of mouth.

- Make unwanted phone calls to you.

- Call your employer or professor.

- Wait at places you hang out.

- Use other people as resources to investigate your life – for example, looking at your Facebook page through someone else’s page or befriending your friends in order to get more information about you.

- Damage your home, car or other property.

- Victims of stalking suffer anxiety, social dysfunction and severe depression at much higher rates than the general population, and many lose time from work or have to move as a result of their victimization, according to the American Journal of Public Health.

- Have eating problems, such as appetite loss, forgetting to eat or overeating.

- Have flashbacks, disturbing thoughts, feelings or memories.

- Feel confused, frustrated or isolated, because other people don’t understand why you are afraid.

There is no standard psychological profile for a stalker, and many follow their victims from one jurisdiction to another, making it difficult for authorities to investigate and prosecute their crimes. Communities that understand stalking, however, can support victims and combat the crime. Contact your local law enforcement agency if you think you are being stalked.

“Any citizen who has any questions or concerns about being stalked can contact the Ionia County Sheriff’s Office at 616-527-5737, or Central Dispatch at 616-527-0400,” said Hesche.

“Contacting law enforcement and getting a personal protection order (PPO) are the most important steps,” Roberts said. “Then it is necessary for individuals suspicious or fearful of being stalked to start writing down the interactions, documenting the calls/texts/emails, and following up with witnesses after interactions.”

RAVE has materials and speakers available promote awareness and public education about stalking during this annual observance. For more information, call RAVE at 616-527-3351.

“People don’t really know when they’re being harassed or stalked, because they don’t know what it is,” said Amanda Peterson, coordinator of RAVE’s DARA (Domestic Assault Response Advocacy) team. “That’s why it’s important to educate them.”

For additional resources to help promote National Stalking Awareness Month, visit stalkingawarenessmonth.org, www.ovw.usdoj.gov, and victimsofcrime.org/our- programs/stalking-resource-center

Relief After Violent Encounter – Ionia and Montcalm, Inc. offers free and confidential services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence, as well as victims of homelessness. RAVE is committed to supporting healing and empowering individuals in crisis as well as educating individuals and the community on the power of healthy relationships. For a list of services, visit www.raveim.org. RAVE’s 24-hour crisis and support line is 1-800-720-SAFE (7233).

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